1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for Internet connections, which is operated by an Internet service provider which is not a telephone company, for performing billing processing as well as providing users with network connection services. The present invention particularly relates to a system for Internet connections using a collect call line.
2. Description of the Related Art
To this date, when an individual connects to the Internet, he/she generally uses a dial-up connection through an access point (AP) of an Internet service provider.
For a usual dial-up connection, two charges are incurred for a user: a telephone fee from a telephone company according to a telephone line connection time, and an Internet connection fee from an Internet service provider. If an owner of an Internet connection ID and a contractant of a telephone line are different, the Internet connection fee is charged to the owner of the Internet connection ID, and the telephone fee is charged to the contractant of the telephone line.
As opposed to the above, there is an Internet connection for which the telephone fee is charged to a collect call telephone line (toll-free number line and the like). Such a connection service has an advantage that the above two charges, the line connection fee and the Internet connection fee are combined rather than separated from each other.
Incidentally, an Internet service provider which uses a conventional collect call telephone line for Internet connections must pay the telephone fee to the telephone company while billing users for the Internet connection fee.
Under existing circumstances, the Internet service provider does not calculate the line connection fee and applies a fixed rate which includes the line connection fee to the Internet connection fee. In this type of billing, an actual line connection fee and the telephone fee charged from the telephone company to this Internet service provider are unrelated with each other. As a result, the Internet service provider has a tendency to set a considerably overvalued fee as the Internet connection fee.
In other words, when a dial-up connection is made by a user calling from a location distant from the access point, the Internet service provider, as a collect call recipient, has to pay more expensive line connection fee to the telephone company than for a user calling from a location near the access point. In order to balance the above difference with a fixed rate, the Internet service provider must bill an overvalued Internet connection fee for dial-up connections even from nearby locations.